About
My name is Kastoori Barua, and I am based in London, Ontario. This website began as a space where I wrote for myself about the things that move me, and it continues to serve that purpose, though it now also functions as a kind of personal archive.
I completed my PhD in the Department of English and Writing Studies at the University of Western Ontario, which I defended in early March 2025. My doctoral research examined the nexus between visual aesthetics and literary depictions of migration, belonging, and identity, approached through various philosophical lenses of hospitality across media forms.
Beyond the ambit of academia, I am broadly interested in the relations between art, aesthetics, and society, and in the dialectics that emerge within cultural studies. Formerly an art curator and critic, I am especially drawn to hyper-contemporary conceptual art and to the artistic representation and framing of migrants in post-migration contexts. My ongoing intellectual and professional endeavor is to identify or create ways of integrating theory to praxis, thereby reintroducing a politico-philosophical valence to art.
Outside of my professional and cerebral pursuits, I enjoy watching F1, anime, and practicing archery.
You can reach me at kbarua2(at)uwo(dot)ca
Updated on: 02.26.2026